Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 48 (part 2)

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, again featuring the Hopkins family line. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” again featuring a group of California pioneer families.

Here are portraits of railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins (1813-1878) and his wife Mary Frances (Sherwood) Hopkins (1818-1891), direct descendants of Mayflower passengers William Bradford, Thomas Rogers, John Alden, and Priscilla Mullins.

Part one ended with some early genealogy and history published in a New York newspaper about one of my subjects: Mark Hopkins, the millionaire railroader and one of the five children born to Mark Hopkins Sr. (1779-1828) and Anastasia Lukens (Kellogg) Hopkins (1780-1837).

Some of Mark’s siblings died young. However, Samuel Frederick Hopkins (1803-1884) married and left many descendants which I will cover in another story. I hope to have photos of his family which I requested from the archives.

Another brother, Moses Hopkins (1817-1892) was a successful rancher and horse breeder in California. Below is a daguerreotype of Moses sporting a handsome goatee.

Mark Hopkins married his first cousin Mary Frances Sherwood, daughter of William Sherwood (1786-1871) and Lydia Ann (Kellogg) Sherwood (1793-1865).

Below is a daguerreotype of Mary taken in 1850.

A diary from one of Mary’s contemporaries discloses a luxurious lifestyle complemented by charitable activities. Amidst the elegant gatherings and shopping excursions, the Hopkins women and their social circle engage in numerous philanthropic endeavors. I found several hefty donations made on behalf of Mrs. Hopkins and her relations. One was with the Chinese Mission School.

I return to one of my articles from 2019 entitled “Diary of Young Girl Recalls Gilded Age,” describing life in the Menlo Park, California, estate “Sherwood Hall” owned by the Hopkins family.

The diary was written by Isabella Cass (1857-1932) of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, who stayed at Sherwood Hall in 1884-1885. Accompanying Isabella was Mary “May” Kellogg Crittenden, niece of Mary Hopkins and the future wife of Timothy Nolan Hopkins, Mary’s adopted son. I covered May’s lineage in part one. Below is a photo of her from the diary book.

Isabella was the daughter of Dr. Jonathan and Mary (Peet) Cass. Her family had connections with the Hopkins in their California missionary work. Isabella attended the Rose Cottage Seminary, also known as “Miss Kellogg’s School,” run by Mary and Mark Hopkins’ aunts Nancy and Mary Kellogg. The two sisters were daughters of Lieutenant Ezra Augustus and Mary “Polly” (Whiting) Kellogg.

In her diary for Thursday, 19 February 1885, Isabella records:

“Had a nice letter from Mother [Mary (Peet) Cass] and Mrs. Frank Whiting, telling me of the Chinese Missions in San Francisco.”

Mrs. Frank Whiting, born Harriett W. Curtis, married Francis “Frank” Whiting. He is the son of John and Hannah (Kellogg) Whiting and cousin to Mary Hopkins.

Below are their photos, published in Isabella’s diary transcription.

In her diary for Thursday, 5 March 1885, Isabella writes:

“Took the cable car up Calif. St. to Mrs. Hopkins [at Nob Hill estate]. Found May in her lovely ‘pompadour room,’ she went with me across to Sacramento Street till we found the Chinese Mission. I inquired about Miss [Margaret] Culbertson, of whom Mrs. Frank Whiting had written to me.”

Here is a photo of Margaret Culbertson, daughter of Samuel C. and Nancy (Johnson) Culbertson of New York.

I found a newspaper clip on Miss Culbertson assisting one of her charges, a young Chinese girl named Fong Ping.

This article reports:

A Chinese Slave.

The Efforts of Highbinders to Get Possession of Her.

A Chinese girl named Fong Ping was taken before Judge Rearden yesterday afternoon on a writ of habeas corpus sued out by Ah Wong, who claimed her as his wife. The girl was recently rescued from a degraded life and placed in charge of Miss Margaret Culbertson, matron of the Chinese Mission Home. When Miss Culbertson started from the Home on Sacramento Street to take the girl to the courtroom, a party of highbinders [thugs from Chinese Americana criminal gangs] attempted to capture Fong, but they were frustrated by the presence of Officer Holbrook. Judge Rearden granted a continuance of the hearing until next Tuesday on motion of the attorney for petitioner. As Miss Culbertson was leaving the courtroom with her charge and had scarcely reached the sidewalk, the highbinders made another attempt to capture the girl. But Miss Culbertson had taken the precaution to intimate to the police that she feared such an attempt would be made, and the highbinders were met by two officers who dealt Wong a blow that laid him out on the sidewalk. The matron, girl, and Attorney Ruef then boarded a McAllister Street train and reached the Mission Home in safety. Wong says he is married to the girl and considers her worth $1,700.

Returning to Isabella’s diary:

“She [Culbertson] took us to the school room, and introduced us to Miss Cable, the teacher there. We saw a small room with the rows of desks, and the Chinese girls studying.”

“One little thing, five years old, sat at the front desk near up, she was very bright and cunning, she read very well, as did a class of older girls. One, Ah Yoke, who Mrs. Whiting supports, writes beautifully.

“Another Chinese child had been deserted on board ship, and the officers had brought her there [Chinese Mission Home] also. They sang for us, and I was much interested in them and their teacher.

“After luncheon, I went down into the city to an art store, also to the Palace Hotel to see Madam Grand Jean, but she had gone – but saw Mrs. Rathbone in her pretty room.”

Stay tuned for more from the diary, including intel about Mrs. Rathbone and her husband, who was Mary Hopkins’ horse breeder and confidant.

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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Related Articles:

• Fake Wills & Forged Bibles Lay Claim to Mark Hopkins’ Huge Estate
• The Gilded Age Palace: What Mark Hopkins Bankrolled
• Mad Scramble to Claim Mark Hopkins’ Riches: A ‘New Gold Rush’
• Pedigree, Pearls, and Pooches: The Hopkins Saga Continues
• The Mysterious Death of Heiress Lydia Kellogg Hopkins, Part I
• The Mysterious Death of Heiress Lydia Kellogg Hopkins, Part II
• America’s Richest Widow Restores Church and Cemetery of Great Barrington, MA
• R. Moss’ Hoax: A Scam for the Hopkins Fortune
• More Legal Battles over the Mark Hopkins Railroad Fortune
• Scams to Get the Hopkins Fortune: Seances, Table Tipping, and Slate Writing
• More Hopkins Saga: Minister’s Wife Battles Edward Searles
• Kin of America’s Richest Widow Battle Edward Searles in Probate Court
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 48 (part 1)